Two crafty friends making our way through motherhood and life, one day at a time

New Year’s Resolutions

So how are your resolutions going?

Mine? Well they are going pretty good. I am actually quite proud of what I have accomplished this year so far. So ,what were my resolutions? I actually had two sets of goals for this year, business and personal. Business?! I know that wouldn’t be surprising to some people, but I haven’t worked, in the traditional sense, in over three years. I am a stay at home mom and for the most part I am very happy to be a stay at home mom. Of course there are those days when I wish things were different, but come on seriously, I had those days when I was working too. I think we ALL have those days, no matter what we are doing or what our current situation is. The grass is always greener, right?

Business goals

Start a website and have the first post posted by the end of January 2017

Open an Etsy shop for Amy’s Tangled Dreams

Obtain Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterst accounts for the blog

Get new customers and finish products they are happy with

Personal goals

Do yoga past the summer

Work on my arms

Find a dietitian to help me with my nutrition – I was diagnosed with IBS over the summer and I need some help figuring out what to eat.

Find a few other doctors that are in my new health insurance

Work on home schooling Spencer and stop just talking about it

Actually spending some real time with my husband

Wow, I thought I was insane for all of my resolutions, but writing them out just really hits me how much I am expecting of myself this year. I haven’t made any resolutions in years, so maybe this is my way of making up for not participating in the past?

Honestly, I thought that resolutions were a bunch of hog wash. People put themselves on these absolutely ridiculous diets or exercise programs that they have no intention of maintaining for a year or more. They just want to loose weight or bulk up. Now, I am sorry if you are one of those people and I have offended you, but that is not me. I was always super thin. Well, until I had my son at least. And I swear something just happens to your metabolism after you turn 30. Well that’s neither here nor there. I just didn’t make resolutions. I have always been more into changing myself as a person and changing habits and if I wasn’t ready to change then I wasn’t going to say that I would do it. I smoked for a really long time. I ‘tried to quit’ a few times in college but my heart was never in it. I had decided that I wanted to quit smoking before I got pregnant. A year before I got pregnant to be exact. Rob and I got married in 2011. In February 2012 we went to the doctor and got Chantix for the two of us and we both quit. I am not going to lie, it was hard even with Chantix. For a really long time I wanted a cigarette after quitting. It was a burning desire for the first couple of weeks, then it started easing and it was more my mind that was bothering me and not the physical addiction. The times that were the hardest for me were my morning smoke with my cup of coffee, after sex, and getting stuck in traffic or being behind someone who was driving and smoking. Luckily, almost four years later I still have not smoked and I literally have to think about what my triggers were. But you know what? I didn’t say ‘hey my resolution this year is to kick smoking’ on New Years 2012. I didn’t tell anyone because I wasn’t sure it was really going to happen. I was hopeful. Just like I was hopeful I’d get pregnant in 2013. But not resolute.

Last year I had some really promising activity with Amy’s Tangled Dreams. I sold four hats at my first art show. Which is something I am very proud of. I sold two hats at the holiday boutique and I had two orders that day as well. I had several orders for Christmas. So by the end of last year I became resolute. This would be an Amy’s Tangled Dreams year. I have never blogged before, set up a website, I barely tweet and I started a personal Instagram just to say I had one and I think it has something like 5 posts on it. I am a Facebook person. I have been on it since it came out and it was just for college students. Oh and I am a Pinterest whore. In the first three weeks of this year Tracy and I have started a blog, started a Facebook page for the blog, an Instagram, a Twitter account and a Pinterest account. I am so proud of us. We have pushed ourselves and each other out of our comfort zones to really try and get our respective businesses out there.

Now as for my personal goals…I am really really hopeful.

I had found Yoga with Adriene last year. I did her 31 days of yoga challenge and let me tell you she is a real honey pot. She suckers you in with Day 1 and then Day 2 she kicks your butt. But I kept going back for more. I couldn’t do it every day. But I kept with it and it took me maybe 35 days to do it. And then I stopped. Why? I have no idea why. Well this year I told myself I was going to do it again and I found out that she has a Revolution Challenge this year. So of course I started a day late cause really,who wakes up on January 1st and says ok let’s start this New Year off right? That is definitely not me. I was up late New Year’s Eve partying. Yes, I party with my 3 year old. And honestly, I have already missed three days of yoga since starting late. I was in a lot of pain, because lets be honest, I am more than a little out of shape and Adriene kicks my butt. So I gave myself a night off. Then this past weekend was my husband’s birthday celebration. We sent the kid over to grandma’s house for the night and stayed up playing Fall Out 4 and eating cheese and crackers. Definitely not a yoga night. And one night turned into three because my husband had a long weekend this week, so why not play video games? But you know what, I am not scared. Tomorrow I will get back onto my mat and do Day 12. Cause at the end of the day I feel a lot better doing yoga than I do without.

My arms -SIGH-

A couple of months ago I noticed my arms doing that wobbly thing. I never thought I would have wiggly arms. But I swore to myself somewhere in my teens that I would never have grandma arms. So, its time to start working on my arms. I have already notice a bit of a change in how a particular shirt fits so hopefully I am making progress. Planks for the win!

Dietitian

IBS sucks! I have literally been sick my whole life. I stopped going to doctors for a long time because no one could tell me what was wrong with me. All I kept hearing was that its all in my head. Last summer I had some concerning symptoms and I ended up going to urgent care. Ironically, I already had an appointment with a GI for a couple weeks in the future. It had been a few years since I had to go to the ER from being sick and now that I have a kid I really can’t be getting sick like that and I wanted to get to the bottom of it. When I explained to him my history he said he thinks I have IBS. I’m too healthy to have any of the other diseases but they would run tests to rule them out. He told me to look into the low foodmap diet and give it a try. I said what the hell man, how bad can it be? Then I saw the diet. Well, since I had gone to urgent care before my appointment that doctor had told me to do a clear diet with nothing red in it for two weeks. My system was pretty cleared out and I was feeling great. So that is when you are supposed to start trying things again that could be bad for you. I had no idea how bad it could get. I tried a cup of coffee the day we were leaving from our vacation because I was dragging. I hadn’t had coffee in a month. I was laid out on the couch for hours. I couldn’t move I was in so much pain. Needless to say, I haven’t had coffee since last summer -.- Yeah I am a tea drinker now. There are other wonderful things that I can’t have either like onion and garlic. I mean, REALLY?! What is life without onion and garlic? I can live without high fructose corn syrup or overly processed food… but onion and garlic? Now, not everything on the list is supposed to bother me. And I cheat a lot, (I live over a the best pizza place in the world for goodness sakes,) but seriously, IBS is not a joke. It’s not just a bowel problem, it’s an everything problem. I was severely bloated and was in a lot of pain. My joints and my muscles were killing me. When, and if, I actually told people how much pain I was in they were shocked. Cleaning up my diet really helped. Like, now I am virtually pain free. And I can tell when I have eaten too much bad stuff for me because my body starts hurting again. Hence the need for a dietitian. I need to clean my act up. I can’t be yelling at my kid because my hips/back/body hurt and my patience is thin because of it.

Finding other doctors –

I have cavities and my old dentist wasn’t covered well enough by our old insurance so we literally changed our insurance so I could have my cavities filled. And I am about a year over due for new glasses.

Home schooling Spencer –

He isn’t going to preschool and I don’t want him to be behind his peers because he didn’t go to school before Kindergarten. Have you seen the requirements for kids in Kindergarten these days?!

Spending time with my husband –

If we don’t spend quality time together sans kid then our relationship will wither and die. We BOTH feel very strongly about this. And I am lucky to have in-laws that support us and watch our kid for us over night sometimes. 2016 was our 5 year anniversary and we want 5 more, and 5 more, and 5 more…

In the end, hopefully I will get done these major things I am trying to work on. Cause lets be realistic… I gotta have fun with my baby while he is still my baby. We gotta do all the things little kids should be doing. And then there are all the holidays and birthday parties. Oh the birthday parties. I cannot wait to see what 2017 has to bring. I used to hate the holidays and new years and resolutions and the end of one year and the beginning of a new one. Having Spencer has changed all that. Now I look forward to showing him things. I want to make things as happy and as perfect as possible for him. I want him to enjoy every season and every holiday equally. Ahh, I am just so excited. He has changed so much in just the last few weeks. 2017 is going to be a beautiful year.